Robotic sleeve keeps flabby hearts pumping
WASHINGTON—Scientists are developing a robotic sleeve that can encase a flabby diseased heart and gently squeeze to keep it pumping.
So far it’s been tested only in animals, improving blood flow in pigs. But this “soft robotic” device mimics the natural movements of a beating heart, a strategy for next-generation treatments of deadly heart failure.
The key: A team from Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital wound artificial muscles into the thin silicone sleeve, so that it alternately compresses, twists and relaxes in synchrony with the heart tissue underneath. It’s a dramatically different approach than today’s therapies and, if it eventually is proven in people, it might offer a new alternative to heart transplants or maybe even aid in recovery.
“You can customize the function of the assist device to meet the individual needs of that heart,” said Dr. Frank Pigula, a cardiac surgeon who, while at Boston Children’s, took the idea to Harvard colleagues developing soft robotics.
More than 5 million Americans, and 41 million people worldwide, suffer heart failure, a number growing as the population ages. A heart left damaged by a heart attack, high blood pressure or other conditions becomes progressively weaker and unable to pump properly.
For severe cases, the only options are a scarce heart transplant or battery-powered mechanical pumps that are implanted into the chest to take over the job of pumping blood. These VADs, ventricular assist devices, prolong life, but running blood through the machinery can leave patients at risk of blood clots, strokes and bleeding.
That shouldn’t be a risk with the robotic sleeve. “The nice thing about this is it can go on the outside of the heart, so it doesn’t have to contact blood at all,” said Harvard associate engineering professor Conor Walsh, senior author of the research published Wednesday.